


play it cool

by neocxxlture



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: M/M, Try-outs, Volleyball AU, i have no idea if this is how try-outs work? just go with it, is this a meet-cute? it might be a meet-cute, kihyun is the captain of the team! changkyun is a freshman!, silly and fluffy i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27642464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neocxxlture/pseuds/neocxxlture
Summary: “Don’t look now, but,” Minhyuk speaks in a hushed tone, low enough for only Kihyun to hear. Kihyun doesn’t think he imagines the amusement in his voice. “There’s this guy that keeps staring at you.”
Relationships: Im Changkyun | I.M/Yoo Kihyun
Comments: 13
Kudos: 101





	play it cool

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to the lovely [illay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/illay/pseuds/illay) for the prompt, dude i love you ❤  
> anyway this is mostly just writing practice for me, as i'm trying to get out of the writer's block that i've been in since pretty much the start of march. it's clumsy, but writing this was pure serotonin for my brain and i had a lot of fun, so i do hope you enjoy this silly thing too ❤

🏐

There are too many people in the gymnasium right now, is what Kihyun thinks as he surveys the scene.

It’s fine, though, he tells himself. It was to be expected, anyway. It’s always like this, the first week of the semester, when the freshmen all sign up for the team because they either don’t know what else to sign up for or don’t really care what sport they take up at the beginning of their journey through university, and volleyball seems like the easy option.

Kihyun sighs to himself, quietly. He knew it would be like this; the first couple practices of the new academic year are always a bit chaotic. There are too many new faces, too many bodies mingling together at the sides of the court, too many things to keep track of at once. He’s been through it twice already, after all – this is his third year with the team, he should be used to this, really – but he guesses it was a tad easier to make it through the try-outs when he wasn’t carrying the responsibility of being the captain of the team.

“Hey,” he hears Minhyuk’s voice filter into his thoughts from beside him. They are standing side by side at the edge of the court, where the benches are. The Coach split the freshmen into teams, and currently they’re watching two of the teams play a practice match. Kihyun and Minhyuk and the rest of the team are supposed to observe the play, assess the freshers’ skills, keep note of the potential talents. So far, Kihyun doesn’t think anyone’s stood out from the rest. That isn’t to say that they’re bad – they’re good enough, and they can be much better with practice – but it does make his job a bit harder. He is going to have to let some of these people go.

“Yeah?” he answers Minhyuk, keeping his eyes on the match in front of him. Someone just served the ball right into the net. The Assistant Coach blows the whistle, and the other team prepares for serve.

“Don’t look now, but,” Minhyuk speaks in a hushed tone, low enough for only Kihyun to hear. Kihyun doesn’t think he imagines the amusement in his voice. “There’s this guy that keeps staring at you.”

“What?” Kihyun asks, brows furrowing, trying to keep focus on the ball as it sails past a boy that tries to block it, who jumps up just a second too late. He does not turn to look around, but it’s a near thing. “Where?”

“By the entrance,” answers Minhyuk.

That’s at the opposite side of the court from them, and to the very far left. Kihyun gives it a moment – the current setter on the second team is pretty good actually, that’s the potential they are looking for! – before he turns his head to, very casually, survey the area by the entrance to the room.

He spots the boy immediately – he _is_ looking at Kihyun, and quickly averts his gaze when he realizes Kihyun is looking right back.

“He’s cute,” remarks Minhyuk.

Kihyun hums, as his frown deepens. “I guess,” he says, but despite himself, he has to silently agree. The boy’s got a shock of black hair that falls, elegantly, into his eyes. Honestly, everything about him seems elegant, the lazy slope of his nose, the sharp jut of his jaw, even the way his black t-shirt hangs off his lean frame, just a size too big on him.

The boy glances over again, and with a sense of mortification, Kihyun realizes he’s been caught staring. He deals with it differently than the boy did a couple of seconds previous, though; and even though Kihyun’s heartbeat stutters, just once, he only raises an eyebrow at the boy, and watches as he averts his eyes once more, looking at the floor, shuffling in place from foot to foot like he’s nervous.

Kihyun finally turns away, feeling something stir in his chest.

🏐

The boy is in one of the last two teams that play a practice match against each other.

It’s at least over two hours later, and Kihyun is _tired,_ but he still watches with rapt attention as the boy walks onto the court, the side of it that’s closer to where Kihyun and Minhyuk have taken seats on the benches. He glances at Kihyun again as he takes his place, just for a split second, but even that is enough to make Kihyun’s heart miss a beat again.

From beside him, Minhyuk comments, “Think he plays as good as he looks?”

Kihyun shoves at him with his shoulder. “Focus,” he says, even though he himself has a bit of trouble with that.

The boy is good – under the net, that is. He’s not the best, and his technique is clumsy, sometimes downright sloppy, but he does well. It’s when he is rotated into the back that he starts having trouble. He isn’t very good as a libero, Kihyun notes with some dissatisfaction, but he think it’s nothing that cannot be trained. Kihyun watches as the boy fumbles, as he tries to receive the ball and fails three times in a row. The spiker on the opposite team seems to have noticed the boy’s weakness as well, and he keeps exploiting it, spiking the ball with so much force it makes Kihyun wince. Even the best liberos on the team would have trouble countering these vicious attacks.

It’s when it happens for the fourth time that Kihyun decides that’s enough. He stands up and motions to the Assistant Coach with his hand, and the whistle is blown to pause the game. Everyone looks at Kihyun then – he feels his skin prickle, _too many eyes on him_ , but he ignores it, and looks at the troublesome spiker. When he speaks, he tries to do so with the authority he always admired in Hyunwoo, their former captain, “Are you _trying_ to injure your classmates?”

There is a beat of quiet, and a murmur from the side. Kihyun keeps his eyes on the spiker, who shakes his head no. Kihyun turns to look at the pretty boy, and addresses him directly, “You. Put your arms like this,” he demonstrates for him, showing him what he means. “Closer together. Don’t lean so much to the side and bend your knees a bit more.”

Kihyun waits, a moment too long, until the boy nods, then sits back down. The whistle sounds, and the match picks up where it left off.

“Oh,” Minhyuk snorts, “Oh, that was quite terrifying. You’re scary, Captain.”

Kihyun doesn’t dignify that with a response, but feels warmth fill his ribcage nonetheless.

The spiker puts less force behind his attacks from then on, but it’s still a bit too much. Kihyun doesn’t like it – has a bad feeling about it, simmering just under his skin – but he tries to ignore it and _focus_. The other boy – Kihyun wishes he knew his name, god – finally successfully receives one of these attacks, arms in perfect position, the way Kihyun just showed him, knees bent precisely right. _Quick learner,_ Kihyun thinks, just as his team scores a point, and the boy turns to look at Kihyun with a smile that brightens up his entire face.

They go a full rotation, and then the boy is at the back again, in the middle, preparing to receive a serve. And he does so, beautifully, the balls soars high in a perfect arch, to the setter, to the spiker, and above the net to the other side of the court.

Kihyun catches the boy’s eyes, and he realizes he’s grinning only when the boy grins back. Kihyun feels his heart stutter, for the third time that day, dear god what is going on with him, this doesn’t usually happen –

He hears the smack first. It’s loud, almost deafening, like a gunshot. He hears it first, and then he sees it, as if delayed, like a video with a messed up audio track – the ball connecting with the side of the boy’s head, at his temple, the impact of it so strong and unexpected it sends him to the ground in a second where he lands on his ass and elbows with a surprised cry.

Kihyun is out of his seat in a flash, but people around him are quicker – the whistle sounds, the Coach is yelling something but the words don’t make sense in Kihyun’s brain, a murmur starts up across the room, someone shouts, “Changkyun!”

The Assistant Coach and some other players go to the boy – is Changkyun his name? the boy that shouted it is running forward and to the court to join the huddle that formed there – and Kihyun spots the Coach at the other side of the net, talking to – yelling at, really – the spiker that Kihyun reprimanded earlier. Kihyun feels his blood boil, then – he wants him off his court, right this instant, and if the Coach doesn’t make him leave Kihyun will go over and throw him out himself—

But of course the Coach pulls him from the court. That guy won’t make the team, Kihyun is sure of this, if only because Kihyun will not fucking let him.

His attention is diverted again when he hears a deep voice, saying, “I’m fine, Joo. Really. It just grazed by me.”

“Didn’t look like it,” comes the reply, grumbled.

The Assistant Coach guides the boy – along with his friend, who seems just as concerned as Kihyun really feels – to the door that leads to the locker rooms, and the Coach’s office. Coach follows after them not long after. Probably to assess the severity of the injury, Kihyun thinks. He’s left to overlook the rest of practice, but his mind is not really in it, anymore, not when he keeps seeing the scene at the backs of his eyelids, playing on loop.

It feels like it takes ages for the Coach and Assistant Coach to return. In tow, there is the boy’s friend – Joo, Kihyun remembers – but the boy – Changkyun – is not with them. When, after a couple more minutes, he still doesn’t return to the gym, Kihyun gets to his feet.

No one stops him when he makes his way over to the locker rooms.

It’s quiet back there, the sounds of the resuming match muffled and distant. Kihyun finds Changkyun lying down on a bench in the changing room, his eyes closed, resting, although he cracks his eyes open when he hears Kihyun’s footsteps approaching, and for a silent moment, they just look at each other.

“Are you okay?” Kihyun asks, taking a step closer.

Changkyun nods, “Yeah,” he slowly sits up, and Kihyun notes the red splotch on the side of his face, the elbows scrapped raw, and feels his stomach turn. “I think it looked worse than it really was.”

“I doubt it,” says Kihyun, taking another step closer, and then takes a seat besides Changkyun when Changkyun makes space for him.

“I’m really okay,” he says, and his voice is so deep, so pleasant to listen to. “They don’t think I have a concussion, at least.”

Kihyun sighs, and almost has to close his eyes as the breath leaves him, “Jesus Christ.”

It makes Changkyun huff out a laugh.

They fall into silence, but it’s soon broken by Changkyun, “So, did I make the team, Captain?”

“That depends,” Kihyun answers with a shrug of his shoulders, his worry still not fully dissipated, but starting to.

“On what?” Changkyun asks, eyes seemingly twinkling as he regards Kihyun.

“You play well, and I think you could play much, much better, given enough time and practice,” Kihyun admits, and ignores the way his gut squirms when Changkyun’s entire face _lights up_ , “But I’ll let you on my court only if you promise not to get distracted like that ever again.”

There is a small smile on Changkyun’s lips – lovely lips, Kihyun notes – and he says, “Oh, but then you’d have to stop being so distracting.”

A beat passes, total quiet, only the sound of blood rushing in Kihyun’s ears. His heart misses a beat – the fourth time that day, and that is one time too many. He springs to his feet. “That’s ridiculous. You’re ridiculous,” he says, without any heat, feeling his face heat up and hoping Changkyun doesn’t notice, “I still wouldn’t rule out the concussion thing. You should rest.”

Changkyun lets out another laugh, a most charming sound, “As you say, Captain.” As he lies back down in the position Kihyun found him in, and closes his eyes, lips still stretched in a smile.

Kihyun turns on his heel, and heads down the hallway back to the gym. His heart is beating bruises into his chest, but in the privacy of the dark hallway, he allows himself to smile too.

🏐

**Author's Note:**

> as always, any feedback is greatly appreciated!! and you can talk to me on [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/neocxxlture) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/kunyongx) ❤
> 
> edit/ im currently working on a continuation of this piece, so if you'd like to be notified of when i post the next part, feel free to subscribe to either this fic or my acc ❤


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